


twelve hours until

by YOONSONGHEE



Category: Among Us (Video Game), LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Among Us (Video Game) Setting, Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, Betrayal, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Crying, F/F, Gen, Mental Breakdown, Spaceships, i need to stop projecting my mental/emotional onto the moon girls, i promise i love the girls, sapphic behaviour
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YOONSONGHEE/pseuds/YOONSONGHEE
Summary: Jo Haseul was the captain of LOONA-0818 and her and her crew had been together on the ship for the past two years after gruelling training and a tough start she was proud to say that it had been smooth sailing.Until one of her crewmates were bleeding out and the solidarity between them began to splinter as fingers were pointed and people were accused.
Relationships: Jo Haseul/Viian Wong | ViVi, most ships are only implied
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	1. twelve hours left

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how this happened one moment I was doing my homework and now I've started a multi-chaptered loona fic. I think this might be my first multi-chaptered fic ever so here's to praying it won't be left incomplete and abandoned!

“Unnie!”

Despite being on the other side of the ship, Haseul could still hear the heartbreaking scream crying out for help. She dropped the wires in her hands and ran as fast as she could, searching the rooms for anybody else. As she ran she saw the other girls also running to the same spot, the navigation room. Jungeun and Jinsoul rushed out from admin while Jiwoo and Yerim came out of Medbay holding a kit in case somebody was hurt. Heejin and Hyunjin had been sitting in the cafeteria but had since gotten up and were running towards the source of the scream. When she got there, Haseul stopped in her tracks as she saw Yeojin laying on the floor, blood gushing from an open wound in her side. Hyunjin pushed her out of the way so that Yerim and Jiwoo could get to her and that’s when she looked up and saw Sooyoung and Hyejoo holding down a crying Vivi.

“What the hell happened here?” Heejin asked in shock. She was the first person who joined the team and had helped all the girls adjust to life on the ship so to see such chaos must have shocked her.

Sooyoung stepped forward with a cold hard look in her eyes as she glared at Vivi before turning back to the rest.

“Vivi tried to kill Yeojin.”

The silence that followed was deafening, the only sound in the room was Vivi pleading and begging for Hyejoo to let her go but the younger girl refused, keeping a firm grip on her. Haseul looked with wide eyes at Vivi who caught her gaze and opened her mouth to speak only to be roughly pushed by Hyejoo again.

“Sooyoung-unnie,” Jungeun asked tentatively, “are you sure?”

“Am I sure Jungeun?” Sooyoung took a menacing step forward, “we came in to see Yeojin, our Maknae bleeding out on the floor with Vivi standing over her doing nothing, of course, I’m sure!”

“Wait, wait, breathe, let's all breathe,” Haseul said snapping out of her stupor, “Chaewon, quickly go get a stretcher so Yerim and Jiwoo can get Yeojinnie to Medbay. Hyejoo, Sooyoung take Vivi to storage and lock her in there. The rest of you come to the cafeteria as soon as you finish your current tasks. Go, now!”

The rest of the girls rushed out, and Haseul stayed behind to watch Jiwoo, Yerim and Chaewon take Yeojin to Medbay. The youngest was still breathing which was a relief in itself. She thought about sending Jinsoul to check on Yeojin as she knew the girl had extensive knowledge when it came to science but wasn’t certain if it extended to medicine as well. Haseul allowed these thoughts to occupy her brain so she didn’t have to see a crying Vivi be dragged from the room.

“Seul!” Haseul froze at the nickname that came out of the eldest girl’s mouth, “please, I love you all like you’re my younger sisters, I would never hurt Yeojin you have to believe me! Please!”

She stayed silent, worried she would spiral if she thought of Vivi and who the girl was and whether she was capable of doing this. Their bosses had always warned them that the imposters were waved deep into the infrastructure of their system and she had heard of many other spaceships falling victim to their imposters and whole crews being wiped out due to their actions. Her humanity, her emotional side refused to believe that Vivi was capable of doing something like that, but her trained side told her to cut that connection.

•••

“We need to eject her from the ship.”

Even though she had called all the girls to the cafeteria, Haseul was reluctant to start the conversation. Every time she opened her mouth she felt her heart crack a bit wider at the thought of Vivi truly betraying all of them.

“Do you guys truly think unnie is capable of this?” Yerim whispered with red-rimmed eyes. Nobody commented on them.

“I don’t want to believe it either,” Chaewon said but her voice held no remorse, “but after what we saw it’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“There was nobody else there that could have done it,” Hyejoo continued a fierce fire in her eyes, “and even if somebody else did do it, then why was Vivi-unnie just standing here? Why didn’t she call for help or at least try to help. Why was unnie the last word Yeojin screamed before she-“

Hyejoo stood up banging the table with her fist as she faced away from the others, her emotions getting the better of her. She took a deep breath before rolling her neck and turning back to the other girls. She sat down and stared at the table, knowing if she spoke again she wouldn’t be able to control herself. 

“Vivi-unnie has been with us for so long. She relied on all of us to help her adjust to life on the ship,” Jiwoo said thoughtfully, “you don’t really think she would turn her back on us just like that, do you?”

“You know what Polaris said Jiwoo,” Jungeun said absorbed in thought, “the imposters are clever, they’ve had training, even rivalling ours. Maybe Vivi was never on our side in the first place.”

You could see all the hope leave Jiwoo, her spirits drained and Haseul could feel her heart sink along with hers as she was feeling the same way. She sighed before turning to Jinsoul, hoping she could help somehow.

“Jinsoul-ah?”

“If we’re really unsure about Vivi-unnie, I could run some tests, like forensics and stuff. It might take a while but at least we’ll be certain about-“

“A while?” Sooyoung asked, scoffing incredulously, “so what, we give her the chance to do something else? What if by the time we run those tests, she tries to kill another one of us? Then what?”

“Sooyoung please-“

“No Haseul don’t even start!” Sooyoung stood from her seat and rounded the table so she was right in front of Haseul, “you’re a weak link here, you’re letting your emotions control you because you care more about keeping us together as a group rather than keeping us alive.”

“Sooyoung-unnie, Haseul-unnie has a point though,” Heejin spoke up, “what if we run the tests and they come back negative? Then we would feel terrible about making such a rash decision against Vivi-unnie.”

“Why do we keep calling her unnie,” Hyunjij suddenly quipped, her face expressionless as she looked at all of them, “if you really believe she did it, then why do you still refer to her as unnie Hyejoo? And Sooyoung-unnie, you can’t even call her by her name. Don’t even get me started on you Haseul-unnie,” Hyunjin looked at Haseul with deep eyes, refusing to budge, “I’ve noticed the way you’ve been speaking, it’s as if nothing happened at all you won’t even refer to the situation.”

“What’s your point Hyunjin?”

“My point is Sooyoung-unnie, is that we can’t make a decision right now. Even though it is an urgent situation, it’s clear that nobody is ready to deal with it. I say we wait a bit, it’s still relatively early and later on maybe after Jinsoul-unnie has run the tests and Jiwoo-unnie and Yerim check on Yeojin one more time, then we can decide on something.”

“That’s a great idea Hyunjin,” Haseul agreed a find smile on her face at how much the girl had changed in the two years she had known her, “Jinsoul, you start running the tests, Jiwoo and Yerim, I want at least one of you in the Medbay at all times to check on Yeojin. Jungeun, Sooyoung you two are our best fighters so if needed so you two need to guard,” Haseul hesitated, struggling to get the words out, “you need to guard Vivi just in case, make sure you always have eyes on her. Hyejoo I want you on communications and Chaewon on cams to make sure there’s nothing we could’ve missed. The rest of us will work on various tasks around the ship, okay?”

After getting affirmation from everyone, Haseul watched as they all embarked on their tasks, she stood there aimlessly for a while before she felt Heejin’s hand on her arm after everyone left.

“Haseul-unnie, you and I both know how severe it is if Vivi-unnie turns out to be an imposter.”

“I know Heejin-ah. But we also know that for our ship, each member was chosen specifically and had to go through various training exercises to make it on. Our ship is like no other and I do believe there is an imposter on our ship but I do not believe it’s one of the girls.”

“Then who? Who else is there unnie?”

“That’s what we’re going to find out.”

Heejin nodded slowly at Haseul’s words before following Hyunjin to complete her tasks. Haseul walked in the direction of the Medbay and walked past the curtain which Yeojin was behind knowing she wouldn’t be able to deal with seeing the youngest in such a fragile state again. Making her way to where Jinsoul was working, Haseul inhaled before tapping the other girl on her shoulder causing her to jump up from her desk.

“Sorry! Sorry, I just wanted to get your attention.”

“It’s okay, I’m just on edge because of everything.”

“Understandable. Do you know when the results are going to be ready?”

“I’ve literally just put them in so in the next twelve hours exactly. I’ll try to go as fast as I can.”

“It’s okay Jinsoul. As long as you’re certain the results are a hundred per cent accurate, then there’s no problem.”

Twelve hours. Jo Haseul had only twelve hours to pull herself back together and get her ship in order.


	2. eleven hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vivi was questioning everything and it was only her first hour being locked up.

When Vivi first came to LOONA-0818, she was clueless. 

She was pursuing a modelling career back in Hong Kong when the Mobius straightened. Whole new worlds were joined and new people were met and as wondrous as that sounded it was hell during the first two years. The next two years after that was filled with drafting; anybody and everybody they could find was drafted into the space programme so that they could deal with the consequences for everything. 

There was no method to Polaris’ training programme. Some people were scouted off the streets, from schools sometimes even over the internet while others applied there. Vivi was one of the ones who were scouted and even though she was reluctant about joining the Korean branch due to her limited knowledge of the subject, almost nobody declined. So she left her family behind and worked an intense training period until she came out victorious and joined eleven other girls on a ship where her skills seemed to pale in comparison to the others and her limited Korean didn’t help either.

Looking back she was truly lucky to have the other girls there to help her as she didn’t want to imagine how hard it would have been to adjust to life aboard the ship. She still remembers nights staying up late as Yeojin taught her more Korean so she wouldn’t struggle, the young girl putting her all into teaching and refusing to quit until Vivi understood.

Yeojin.

The same precious girl who was currently fighting for her life in the infirmary of the ship. She loved the youngest so much and felt the need to protect her after she had done so much for her when she first came. Although she wasn’t the most open with her emotions, she thought that her love for Yeojin was visible to everyone yet here she was locked away like a dirty criminal.

Sooyoung had glared at her as soon as she came into the room, not even giving the Hong Konger any time to explain herself, just ordering Hyejoo to help her restrain the eldest before she could ‘ cause more damage ’. Maybe it was because Sooyoung was the only other person who knew her secret, a secret she had told the girl. After all, she believed that she could trust her and it may have had something to do with the small piece of her heart Soonyoung had acquired during late-night trips where the younger took her to explore South Korea or other places she wasn’t familiar with. Now she wanted to eject her from the ship, clearly severing the bond between them.

Being ejected from the ship was what a crew was supposed to do if there was someone that they believed was an imposter according to Polaris’ policies. Everyone knew it was death and execution plain and simple and that the term was only to lessen the burden for when a team eventually had to eject someone. Naïvely, Vivi had thought that they would never have to eject someone from their ship, that they could be together as a crew forever and live in bliss, that she could get away with it.

There were many stories about other crews where imposters were ejected from the start or where the wrong person was ejected. For security reasons, they had to go through logs from other ships first thing in the morning in admin, and Vivi remembers holding back tears during some of them. The most heartbreaking one was a ship where they believed there was an imposter to which the crew vehemently denied but the supervisor for their ship overruled their judgement and ejected the crew member anyways only for him not to be the imposter. It wasn’t until a couple of months later that they found out and Vivi remembers her whole crew holding back tears as they listened to the ship captain’s tearfully log detailing the events.

Could she even call them her crew anymore?

They had all cruelly turned their backs in her without even letting her get a word in. Haseul refused to acknowledge her existence, not even a cold glare in her direction like Sooyoung and Hyejoo. 

The rest of the girls looked on in shock, doubt in their eyes yet did nothing to help her and allowed Hyejoo and Sooyoung to drag her away. There was none of the love of the past two years, the trust built between them diminished in an instant. 

The past two years for Vivi had been establishing trust and having solidarity between them but looking at how her crew, her own family were so ready to throw her out, perhaps their team wasn’t as perfect as she once thought it to be.

A rage started burning in her as she sat on the floor of the storage room, wiping away stinging tears as she realised that maybe the team was perfect, but perfect without her. That was the only explanation for why they were so quick to abandon her when she was also shocked and hurting over Yeojin being hurt.

Against her better judgement, she stood up and went over to the locked door of the storage room and began to bang against the hard metal despite the way it would bruise her delicate skin.

“Ya Sooyoung!” She yelled her anger bubbling over. “Is this how you repay me? After so many years together, so many trips we went on, you throw me in here?” 

Tears were streaming down her face as she fell to her knees, the anger in her making everything more intense. She could feel her soft hair as she ran her hands through her hair in stress before grabbing it and pulling it hard enough to hurt. Kicking and banging against the door had tired her out and she was now heaving as she stared at the door that separated her from the rest of the girls. The door that was being guarded by Sooyoung and Jungeun, the two ready to fight her if need be as Haseul said. She scoffed as she thought about how they were so quick to lock her up that they forgot to search her and left her with her coms and all her weapons.

Vivi took a deep breath before screaming at the door so loud it made her throat hurt, her voice eventually breaking off at the end before breaking down crying again, her tears pitifully hitting the floor. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a creased, worn-out picture from her birthday last year looking at the huge shining smiles in everybody’s faces. Haseul had decided they deserved a day off and they had all gotten together to eat cake and laugh and wish her a happy birthday. 

Usually, she would look back on that day with a smile but now she wanted nothing more than to burn the picture and get off this ship to put an end to her pain.


	3. ten hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooyoung was usually the clear-headed one in tough situations, yet she can't seem to get her head straight this time.

It had been two hours since everything went to anarchy and Sooyoung’s rage was boiling as strong as ever. She paced back and forth in front of the locked door holding Vivi while Jungeun stood there watching her with concerned eyes. The other girl was quite neutral when it came to the whole thing, too cautious to completely say that Vivi was innocent but still hoping that there was an explanation for all of this that didn’t involve the Hong Konger.

Sooyoung refused to allow her emotions to have any interference in her judgement even though she could feel cracks in her resolve. During her training, she came out top of the class every time for great decisions and for not allowing her emotions to cloud her judgement. It was much easier to do that as a trainee when she was only close to a few people who come and go as opposed to being with her team for the past two years.

Despite what her behaviour conveyed, she didn’t hate Vivi. Sooyoung truly loved the other girl, not in a romantic sense but perhaps the tiniest bit more than she loved the other girls. Vivi was the first girl Sooyoung met, before any of the others when they had to go through a specific training exercise with a different group of trainees and although Vivi was friendly back then, Sooyoung was still reluctant to get close to her. 

Now, the close bond they had was destroyed because Vivi betrayed them.

The thought brought another burst of anger to her and she kicked against the door where Vivi had been banging and screaming for almost the past hour. 

“Unnie, Sooyoung, Stop it!” Jungeun finally broke out of her calm state to grab Sooyoung and pull her away from the door.

“What! So she can get away with banging up a fucking storm for the past hour yet I can’t even get a couple of kicks in?” Sooyoung glared at Jungeun before pulling her arm out of her hold.

“Sooyoung-unnie we can’t lose our heads over this,” Jungeun sighed rubbing her temples, “just hold out until Jinsoul-unnie gets the results we need and then we can let out whatever emotions we’re feeling.”

“So you’re on her side as well?”

“Unnie you know it’s not like that.”

“I just don’t understand why all of you are so scared of thinking of the possibility that maybe, just maybe Vivi is capable of doing something like this.”

“That’s the first time you’ve called her by her name since...”

“Since what? Just say it Jungeun-ah. Since Yeojin was hurt since she was bleeding out on the floor with Vivi standing over her. Was it that-“

Sooyoung came to an abrupt stop when she saw Jungeun facing away from her biting her lip, trying to keep tears at bay. At an instant, she felt her resolve to argue soften and allowed some of the anger to melt away at the scene in front of her. She thought keeping rage at the forefront of her mind would allow her to remain impartial to the situation so that she could make a straightforward judgement about everything but the truth was that Sooyoung had no clue what to do. Inside she hoped and wished that Vivi didn’t do this, that she really was the sweet girl they all knew and loved yet, on the other hand, she didn’t want to feel such an extreme betrayal; she wouldn’t be able to take it after becoming so close to her after a short time. Sighing, she stepped closer to Jungeun and wrapped her arms around the younger girl, swaying slightly from side to side as she tried to comfort her.

“I’m sorry Jungeunie-ah,” she said softly while Jungeun, “It’s just too dangerous to be nice right now.”

“Everything is fucked up unnie,” Jungeun sniffled wiping away her tears before exhaling deeply, “Just two hours ago, Yeojin was hurt, she was injured so badly and is now in the infirmary not waking up and as if that isn’t bad enough, Vivi might have done something to her which just doesn’t make sense!”

“I’m going to be honest with you Jungeun,” Sooyoung said stepping back and looking at the locked door, “I have no fucking clue either.”


	4. nine hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jinsoul wasn't afraid to leave the Medbay, but she wasn't entirely willing to either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the time it took me to write and post this newest chapter, I also simultaneously write like 21 other fics instead of focusing on this. 
> 
> I won't abandon this fic, but updates may be slow at times. I'm trying to update this on a somewhat weekly basis so after posting this I'll get started on the next chapter straight away!
> 
> It also helps that I have only half a day at school tomorrow.

Usually, the MedBay was where Jinsoul could work in her element, testing new samples and sorting out anything that needed to be done. While she wasn’t that good when it came to medicine she never thought it would matter since nobody ever got hurt on their ship unless it was something minor like somebody getting a small cut or maybe something a little bit bigger like a sprained arm or fractured leg.

Yet here she was now looking over Yeojin who was injured in a way Jinsoul had never experienced before and never thought she would have to experience. 

There were still some tasks to do around the ship, but Jinsoul was reluctant to leave because if Vivi wasn’t an imposter, then there was still somebody lurking around the ship who could either sabotage her tests or hurt Yeojin even more. Although she wasn’t the best fighter in their team, Jinsoul would do whatever it took to protect her youngest.

‘Even if that meant fighting Vivi’ and the intrusive part of her whispered. She shook her head to rid herself of the thought and sighed as she looked over Yeojin. 

As Jinsoul fought against the thoughts in her mind, someone came up behind her and placed their hand on her shoulder. Reacting immediately, Jinsoul spun around and pushed the person onto the floor, her hand pressing on their neck. However, her eyes widened when she moved her hair out of her eyes to see Jungeun lying down before her.

“Oh my days, Jungeun I’m so sorry,” Jinsoul quickly got up from the younger girl and offered a hand to help her up, “I wasn’t paying attention to everything.”

“It’s okay Unnie,” Jungeun said as she got up from the floor with Jinsoul’s help, “I just came for some bandages and stuff.”

“Why did something happen?” Jinsoul suddenly grabbed Jungeun’s hand, “you didn’t have to fight did you?”

“No nothing like that, Sooyoung-unnie is just worried since Vivi keeps banging on the door so her hands might be bruised.”

“Why would she do that?”

“We locked her up Jinsoul-unnie, it’s not surprising that she’s mad at us.”

“But she knows that it’s a security procedure.”

“To be used on imposters, not on our own teammates.”

Silence covered the room as the two girls shuffled around each other awkwardly. Jungeun stood there gaping at Jinsoul before going to look for the first aid kit allowing Jinsoul to turn back to her tests and check the progress of them. They weren’t even halfway done making the scientist want to scream out of frustration. Everyone was so on edge and these results were the one thing keeping them all sane right now. If they had to wait any longer, Jinsoul was worried that somebody might just break.

“Unnie?”

“Yes, Jungeun?” Jinsoul answered while she went to complete an inventory of the Medbay. 

When she didn’t hear anything else, she turned around to see Jungeun kneeling in front of the first aid cupboard rolling a bandage between her fingers. She walked over to her and crouched next to her, putting her hand across the younger girl’s shoulder waiting for her to speak.

“I’ve been trying to remain as neutral as possible in this but,” Jungeun took in a deep breath and from this close Jinsoul noticed how the younger’s eyes were tinted red, “do you think Vivi-unnie is actually capable of something like this?”

Jinsoul was unable to look Jungeun in the eyes while answering her question so she instead turned to look at where her forensic equipment was and bit her lip to stop another sigh leaving her body.

“Honestly Jungie,” Jinsoul stood up and walked back to continue doing inventory, “I have no idea.”

There was no other noise except the sound of the two girls moving about completing their tasks, in the same room but feeling separate. Jinsoul briefly registered the sound of Jungeun leaving the room, the Medbay door closing behind her and hoped that she wouldn’t allow this to get the better of her, knowing that she always felt a responsibility to protect the other members of their team.

Jinsoul recalled when she first met Vivi remembering how she got lost in headquarters and separated from the rest of her training group and the older girl had helped her reunite with them. She remembers when she joined the crew and Vivi was there to welcome her with open arms despite their only previous encounter being passing each other in the halls. As the oldest on the ship, she always tried to do her best for the others, whether it was helping them with their tasks around the ship or sometimes working through personal issues with each of the girls. Vivi had been such a strong presence on LOONA-0818 and Jinsoul felt so close to her and the other girls that if it was between her life and theirs, she would sacrifice herself in an instant

The beeping sound of the heart monitor seemed to get louder, reminding Jinsoul of what was happening currently and she shook her head to rid herself of such thoughts, trying to bring her mind back to the present and stop reminiscing about past events. She finished off inventory and went back to check on her forensic tests seeing that there was still nine hours left until they would get any viable results from them. The scientists threw herself into the wheeled chair at the desk and stared at the ceiling, spinning slowly as she waited for either Yerim or Jiwoo to come back to the labs so that Yeojin was supervised.

During training, they were always warned about imposters, but Jinsoul didn’t expect to be faced with one as she had planned to join the aquatic department of Polaris until a last-minute decision and she suddenly decided to join the space department. However, she was unsure if she made the right choice, as now the girls she once saw and treated as a family were making her second guess everything and she was now becoming suspicious about everyone. Groaning, she ingenuously wished that things would go back to how they were so that she could just get on with everything without worrying about who she could and couldn’t trust. There was nothing she could do but wait, so she stopped moving around in her chair and faced her desk, the only sound in the room being the ventilation system and the beeping of the heart monitor on the other side of the room.

If it so happens that while she was alone in the Medbay, she had to reach for some tissues to wipe her eyes, nobody needed to know.


	5. eight hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haseul needed this nightmare to end, whether she had to end it herself.

Haseul was meant to be the captain of this ship. She was supposed to be the leader.

Yet she felt like a mess.

Although she went all over the ship keeping track of not only her own tasks but everybody else’s she still had that permanent sinking feeling in her chest, the feeling that she had failed.

She didn’t know where the failure stemmed from though; whether she had failed the girls by not keeping all of them safe and healthy or if she had failed Vivi by not being there for the older girl and allowing her to be locked up. 

As a captain, she was meant to ensure that everything ran smoothly and get rid of anything that threatened the smooth running of the ship. As a leader, she should be guiding the girls along the right path but she couldn’t find the path herself as her mind led her in one direction and her heart led her to another.

It was times like this that she envied Sooyoung for her hard head and her steel reserve as she seemed to always know what to do and never faltered in her decisions, even concerning emotions. Even Jungeun was able to achieve a careful balance with which she approached any issues or problems that came her way. 

Yet here was Haseul.

Trying to regulate her breathing in a secluded closet on the other side of the ship away from the rest of her team who were working so hard despite what had happened in the past hours. She had gone through the available camera footage as there was a convenient disruption in their communications when the attack happened and when she went to admin, there was nothing there to suggest anybody’s trackers had moved irrationally.

It annoyed her that despite all the help that was available to them, she still couldn’t figure out what happened and she didn’t know whether it was the fault of the haywire ship or the fault of her erratic heartbeat.

They were here to complete missions and get rid of imposters yet here Haseul was falling in love like a fool. Perhaps if she shut it down when she first started feeling for Vivi more than the others, she wouldn’t be in this predicament now. 

Was it really the time to dwell on the past?

Slowly getting up, Haseul wiped away her tears and continued to get what she needed to get before heading to admin to check on the whereabouts of the rest of the team. After locating who she needed, she walked out the room with her head held high and her face stone-cold to find the girl she was looking for. When she entered the upper engine, Jungeun was realigning the engines, the younger so focused on her task that she didn’t even register Haseul walking in. 

Patiently, Haseul waited for her to finish and turn around and then she stepped forward and held out the papers in her hand. Startled, Jungeun took the paperwork and started stuttering as she made eye contact with the leader.

“Unnie! I was just working on the engines, Jiwoo took over for me with-“

“I already know Jungeun don’t worry about it,” Haseul’s tone was unusually stoic as she spoke something that Jungeun barely took note of before Haseul started speaking again, “take those papers to your room and look over them.”

“Okay, sure Unnie. What are they?”

“It’s easier if you just read them. And make sure nobody else is around once you do,” Haseul said without expressing any emotion.

“Okay. I will.”

Haseul nodded slightly before walking away from Jungeun and towards the Medbay. When she entered, Yerim was sitting beside Yeojin’s bed checking up on her and the younger smiled when she saw Haseul walk in. However, her smile faltered when she realised that Haseul didn’t seem fine making her walk towards the captain.

“Hi, Unnie! I was just checking Yeojin’s vitals and even though she’s still not awake, they’ve started rising slowly but surely so she should walk up either later today or tomorrow.”

“Thank you Yerim-ah,” Haseul said with a stiff smile, “you can go do your other tasks now, I’ll be staying here so you don’t need to worry about Yeojin.”

“It’s okay Haseul-unnie, I don’t mind staying here to look after her. There’s even a few more things that I want to double-check in here before I-”

“Yerim-ah,” Haseul cut her off, drawing attention to her desperate eyes pleading with her, “please.”

Realising what Haseul truly wanted, Yerim forced her smile to stay on her face as she waved goodbye to the leader and quickly rushed out of the Medbay. When she was sure that Yerim was really gone, Haseul walked over to the medicine cabinet and took out her anxiety medicine, a secret she had been keeping from the rest of her crew. She took out two pills and took them dry, too agitated to even think about it before going to kneel at Yeojin’s bedside with tears in her eyes once again.

“Yeojinnie,” she started, laying her head on the bed, “Unnie is so sorry. I’m so sorry that this had to happen to you. I’m so sorry that I’m too stupid to even find out what really happened, too incompetent to run this damn ship Yeojin.”

Staring up at Yeojin’s sleeping face, Haseul made a promise to herself. No matter what happened to them, despite whatever things may arise, she would never abandon these girls. Even if protecting LOONA would mean tearing herself apart, she would protect and defend this ship until the very end.


	6. seven hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kim Jungeun has had enough of being lukewarm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a whole month since I last updated this story, but I think I will be able to do weekly updates starting from now since things are winding down at school and I don't have any more upcoming exams. Hopefully, my brain will cooperate with me !

Jungeun’s hand trembled as she read through the papers that Haseul had given her.

Tests, information, consent forms, background checks all the things one needed to fill out to become captain of a ship.

But it didn’t make sense.

Until she reached the last paper in the pile to find a “Transferal of Power Form” which was half-filled out by Haseul herself and the only thing missing to make it complete was a signature. Her signature which would mean that she would become the captain of LOONA-0818. 

But where would that leave Haseul?

Jungeun scoffed as she tossed the papers beside her and stood up, sighing as she looked at herself in the mirror, searching for whatever signs of leadership Haseul saw in her which made the elder girl think she was suitable for a job like this. Pulling lightly at her ponytail, Jungeun winced the thoughts circling in her brain, making her anxious for the results of the forensic test that Jinsoul was running.

Even before everything that had happened today, she knew that Haseul was slightly more on edge as Polaris had been urging her to search for any imposters on her ship early on so that they didn’t have to wait for more years to pass and for them to reach the seven-year curse. There had been quite a few imposters popping up and they didn’t want to wait until it was too late. As soon as they heard about what happened with Yeojin, they would lose their minds, perhaps restricting their communication with the other ships as well until they figured it all out.

Jungeun still remembered the day she was pulled out of training to take the test that would determine if she was ready for life in space or whether she would be subjected to a few more years of harsh training. Looking back, she remembered feeling guilty that she was leaving Jiwoo behind only for her friend to join her on the ship just seven months later.

LOONA-0818 was supposed to be different.

Unlike other crew building processes where the higher-ups looked at a piece of paper and took the trainees with the highest scores, with LOONA-0818 each girl was judged carefully and broken into smaller groups before they had been put together as a whole team. It was meant to be a foolproof plan to stop any imposters from joining the crew.

The thought made Jungeun laugh bitterly as she thought about the situation that they were now in.

She picked the papers back up and didn’t even bother reading them this time, just ripping them up straight away before throwing them into the rubbish bin in her room.

This whole time she had tried to stay neutral in this situation, but now she could feel anger rising from deep within her, an anger that she had tried to repress in fear that she may act out.

Yeojin had been hurt. One of her crewmates, one of her family. She didn’t want to believe that any of them hurt the maknae, yet she couldn’t stop herself from cursing them to hell and back, hoping they would pay for what they did.

Lifting her head, Jungeun gazed at herself in the mirror once more, her stare ice-cold as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

When she found the imposter that was targeting her family, she would paint the universe red with their blood.

Even if they turned out to be the person closest to her.


	7. six hours left

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite it all, Jiwoo still wears a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm determined to finish this story but updating once every week is quite hard because I'm writing it as I go along. I'm going to try and finish it before Feburary because I have exams then. Wish me luck!

If someone had told Jiwoo years ago that she was ready to kill or even die for someone, she would have laughed in their face, assuming they were joking around with her. 

Yerim had been looking after Yeojin for the past hour and had commented about how Haseul was in here with the sleeping girl a while ago, making Chuu curious to how their captain was coping. When she noticed the younger girl’s eyes dropping, she sent Yerim to her room so she could get some rest.

When Yerim had left, Jiwoo checked all of Yeojin’s vitals before throwing herself in the chair next to the hospital bed, gritting her teeth and clenching her jaw. She wanted to start swearing but the door to the Medbay opened at that moment and as if through magic, her signature smile made its way back into her face. Jungeun walked straight into the room and sat herself down in the chair next to Jiwoo so they were both facing Yeojin.

At first, silence prevailed between them with the only noises being the usual hum of the Medbay and the steady beeping of the machine that Yeojin was hooked up to before Jiwoo broke the silence.

“You know, Yeojin is doing much better than expected,” Chuu said flipping through her clipboard and looking at the information, “usually, she would have either been declared dead if she didn’t scream loud enough for us all to hear or she would be sleeping for the next few days.”

“But?”

“But instead she might even wake up in a few hours! Isn’t it lucky that our Yeojinnie is strong?” Jiwoo had a fond look on her face as she watched Yeojin yet the hardness was still lingering, “she won’t let anything get her down. And I won’t let anything happen to her.”

“Jiwoo,” Jungeun said with a serious expression.

“Yes, Jungie?” Jiwoo didn’t allow her eyes to wander and instead looked through Yeojin’s vitals and information again.

“We’ve known each the longest out of everybody here.”

“That’s right!”

“Yet you still think you can succeed at using this act around me?”

Jiwoo’s smile faltered for a split second and she stood up to hang her clipboard on the hook next to Yeojin’s bed before turning around to face Jungeun again.

“I thought we went over this back when we first started training Jungeun,” Jiwoo said with a playful lilt on her voice as she began sanitising the labs, “this isn’t an act, it’s just my personality.”

“I’m not talking about that,” Jungeun continued even though Jiwoo’s back was towards her, “I’m talking about how the smile is still on your face even though you want to do anything but smile right now.”

Jiwoo froze on the spot, her smile wiped off her face and all the fake happiness was gone. Her face wasn’t visible to Jungeun so her friend had no idea about how her face was devoid of emotion as she sighed softly. Blinking away the tears threatening to spill from her eyes, Jiwoo took a deep breath to compose herself before she continued wiping down the counters.

“You know what I’m like Jungie,” she said, her voice quieter than before and her aura noticeably dimmer than when Jungeun first walked in, “I like keeping the bad stuff to myself and dealing with it by myself.”

“Yet you’re always helping the rest of us with our problems,” Jungeun said sadly, her face twisted in concern, “when will the roles change, when can we help you with your issues?”

“That’s not how it works,” the doctor let out a sad chuckle as she continued sanitising and cleaning everything in silence. 

“Alright,” Jiwoo could hear Jungeun’s footsteps get further away before they stopped, “I’ll leave it for now because I know that you won’t talk to me about it. Just know that you can, okay?”

“Okay,” Jiwoo replied, her voice unsteady. 

She waited to hear the door closed and when she was sure that Jungeun was gone, she threw her cleaning supplies across the room and put her head in her hands fighting back tears. 

They had bigger problems to worry about as a crew than her getting a bit emotional. 

Yeojin was close to death hours ago, Vivi was currently locked up because she might have been the reason behind it and you had to be blind if you didn’t see how Haseul was struggling to deal with everything. 

Guilt crept into her veins as she thought about how she was here worrying about herself when everybody else was dealing with the same thing, yet instead of checking on them, she had been avoiding them all even going as far as to push away Jungeun.

Wiping her tears away, she stood up straight and dusted off her lab coat before picking up the supplies that she had carelessly thrown away just moments before.

If someone had told Jiwoo now that she was ready to kill or even die for someone, she would give them a blank stare and nod as she thought about all the emotions she had been bottling up these past years ready to burst.

Jiwoo continued cleaning the lab wearing a smile on her face as if everything was alright in the world, her emotions bubbling just beneath the surface.


End file.
